Corporate Greed

The NY Times filed this report on the security preparations for the G-8 talks in Canada this week:

A wide assortment of protest groups have been quiet about their exact plans. But they have organized a few thousand demonstrators from around Canada and the United States to march this week against globalization, free trade and perceived corporate greed, while supporting ratification of the Kyoto treaty as an antidote to global warming.

Blowback posits this, in response:

Excuse me, perceived corporate greed? The rest of their paper is rife with dark tales of malfeasance at Enron (probe is expanding to include its bankers), Arthur Anderson, Global Crossing and Halliburton, among scores of other former luminaries. And now WorldCom, the nation's second largest long distance company, has admitted to overstating its cash flow by a few billion bucks. Their business section looks like it's being ghost-edited by William Grieder.

Those protesters just can't score a break. They've been documenting and fighting precisely this sort of corporate corruption for years, back when the Times was uncritically whooping the stock bubble as a brave new economic paradigm. Yet far from being vindicated, their arguments still aren't afforded the slightest legitimacy.

Next thing you know, those hysterical conspiracy-mongers will be claiming that the elite media are mouthpieces for the corporate congomerates that own them.

Excellent.

The Worldcom story - more accurately, the Worldcon story - broke last night and now there's the typical flood of talk about the need to, maybe, rethink the regulatory apparatus surrounding virtual capital flows and accounting practices. The market is, of course, floundering. After Enron and Martha it's not going to be easy to sidestep this one...

Still, biz analysts are trying to contain the rhetoric to questions on how to best rid the financial industry of a few bad apples and "restore confidence". Democrats are starting to salivate over the chance to exploit the issue and, while I often despise the Demmys' political opportunism, this time I think it's warranted.

Fun stuff ahead, for sure. I keep telling you people: capitalism just doesn't work! (hehe. how 'bout that for shameful opportunism?)